Grendel with side charger feeding. Hailing LRRPF52!

[kamrr4437]

Went to the range today with my Grendel with its side charging upper. Gun shoots fine but i was having intermitent feeding issues with full mag or near empty mag it didnt matter. Its a 10 round clip from Alexander Arms. Sometimes it would wedge a round in the action. A few times it didnt pick a round up at all. When i got back home i bent the feed lips upward and put it back into the gun. Slowly pulling the charging handle back and easing it forward the bullet tip contacts the feed ramp perfectly either side and feeds so hopefully that will fix that problem. If anyone has anything else to add that i might check. feed ramps look ok to me. The other thing i wanted to discuss is brass ejection. My brass ejects and lands at about 4 1/2 to 5 o clock position constantly. Does this sound proper position or not. my 5.56 carbine ejects at about 2 to 3 o clock position, but that upper has the brass deflector on it. What are your thoughts on the Grendels brass throw. It never failed to eject a round. In any case i was a little disgusted because of my magazine issue it kind of irritated me so i didnt have as good a time as i would have liked. But the gun sure shot smooth and was a thrill to shoot. I just couldnt stay focused on trying to get a group with my feeding problem. Oh the ammo i was using were two different kinds i only had the one magazine. The ammo was Hornady 123 gr and the Lapua Scenars 123 from Alexander Arms. Both rounds shot sweetly through the barrel. But both had feeding issues. I would say more so with the Hornady. The lapua seemed to work better but still had problems. In any case i bent the feed lips. Is there any guidelines for what im suppose to be looking for on the procedure for bending them? Any help from you gentleman on this issue would be greatly appreciated.

Keith

[LRRPF52]

I always take multiple mags to the range to make sure I have options to compare feeding with. I now look at the mags in advance, as I know what proper feed lip angles look like, and what improper ones look like, as I've seen one and had the same issues with a guy's blaster I was testing. The right feed lip top was more perpendicular to the mag's spine, when it should be at a slight upward angle to present the cartridge into the feed ramps.

CProducts turned out a lot of bad mags. Some people have never had a problem, while many others have, not only with the Grendel, but with 6.8, 7.62x39, 5.45, and 5.56 as well. The ASC mags are still in the "let's see" phase, but so far, they mostly seem good-to-go. I'm not sure if anyone has had an issue yet.

There is another huge metal magazine manufacturer working on Grendel mags, slowly, but surely, and hopefully they will do it right.

I'm personally looking at getting one 10rd PRI 6.8 mag and seeing if I cal load COAL to 2.300" and get reliable feeding. If I can load the 130gr VLD's and 129gr SST's to 1.300", that will be peak performance for the Grendel.

While talking with Bill A. this weekend, I learned that the barrel extension plays a big role in reliability with the Grendel, since the extractor needs to be able to open up further away from the bore axis than on a 5.56 gun, due to the Grendel's larger case diameter. If the manufacturer does not source higher-quality barrel extensions, the tolerance deviation in the inner diameter of the extension teeth can be out enough to prevent reliable extraction, since the extractor can't snap over the cartidge rim when going into battery.

There is one forum member who had this happening with his blaster, and we couldn't figure out what the problem was, even after sending his rifle back to Satern several times, and trying multiple different fixes that just didn't work.

If you take a $470+ cut-rifled barrel, and mate it to a $4 barrel extesnion, you're likely to be stuck like chuck. There is a dimensional variance that takes place in the heat-treating of the barrel extensions, and it actually can make the inner diameter of the teeth ever so slightly oblong, so that the extractor can't snap over the cartridge.

Ya learn something new every day I guess...

[kamrr4437]

it seems to extract and throw em out of there just fine i never had any problems with it throwing em out. But what do you think about the position its throwing them out at. Does that sound ok? All the primers and the rear of the case looks ok. Just some very slight scrapes from the feed ramps when it gets slammed into battery.

[LRRPF52]

I get scrapes on the projectiles on all my AR's, including the 5.56 carbines, and my .260 Rem AR10.

The clock position for your brass location seems fine. When it gets to either extreme is when you're having non-optimal timing of the operating system-either too fast of a cyclic rate, or too slow. Too slow usually comes along with too short, and doesn't lock the bolt back, and stove-pipes the spent case as well. This is more rare in the AR than too fast-a common occurrence with long dwell times, and early unlocking. That's when you see the 1:30 or even 1:00, with the case barely making it out far from the receiver.

The cases should be ejecting about 4ft from the rifle.

[kamrr4437]

That sounds about right its about 4ft on the ejection. I just wanted to know from someone more experienced than i on the behavior of the rifle. Guess ill have to go check to see if the ol girl cycles the ammo from the mag as good as what im seeing it do slowly now. I might as well buy some more mags as well. Which mags would you buy. I really dont have any interest in anything over 10 rounders.

[LRRPF52]

Get some of the ASC mags. They make a 10-rounder.

http://www.ammosc.com/storename/ammunitionstoragecomponent2/ViewDept-273393.aspx